Another Atheist PM for Australia YEA!!!

Gillard won't play religion card

Updated 1 hour 31 minutes ago

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd was a regular at Canberra church services and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is known as a devout Catholic.Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she has no intention of pretending to believe in God to attract religiously-inclined voters.

In contrast, Ms Gillard says that while she greatly respects other people's religious views, she does not believe in God.

Ms Gillard has been quizzed on personal topics including her attitude to religion and her relationship with her partner during interviews this morning.

She says does not go through religious rituals for the sake of appearance.

"I am not going to pretend a faith I don't feel," she said.

"I am what I am and people will judge that.

"For people of faith, I think the greatest compliment I could pay to them is to respect their genuinely held beliefs and not to engage in some pretence about mine."

"I grew up in the Christian church, a Christian background. I won prizes for catechism, for being able to remember Bible verses. I am steeped in that tradition, but I've made decisions in my adult life about my own views.

"I'm worried about the national interest. About doing the right thing by Australians. And I'll allow people to form their own views about whatever is going to drive their views.

"What I can say to Australians broadly of course is I believe you can be a person of strong principle and values from a variety of perspectives."

Meanwhile Ms Gillard has rejected claims that she is soft on Israel.

Former ambassador to Israel Ross Burns made the accusation in a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Fairfax press reported.

No one really care whether she is atheist or not. Cooments were almost exlusively positive, until they were suddenly closed at at CoB today. I suspect that's how long it took the xtian lobby attack dogs to organise their comment bombing.

A poll was held on who would vote for Abbott and the few of us that answered were lefties the vast majority of the right wing conservatives had nothing to say ! ( except for a few comments about how she looks )